New Hamilton library will allow users to borrow wheelchairs, crutches and other devices

A new library of assistive devices will launch in Hamilton, and organizers say it will provide free access to items such as power wheelchairs, crutches, canes and ankle braces.

The library will be located at 423 King St. E. at the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion. The first drop-off date for donated items will be on Dec. 14. The official launch date has not been decided but will not be until the new year, according to Sahra Soudi, the program coordinator at the Disability Justice Network Ontario (DJNO). 

Soudi said Hamiltonians will be able to borrow equipment for up to six weeks and renew it for longer if they need more time. 

The creation of the library was prompted in part due to the number of community members who have come to their office in need of assistive devices, Soudi said.

"We hear stories from community members almost every week about things that they are need of, and a lot of that is devices," they said. "We actually recently had an encampment resident that came through our office asking for a walker."

Devices can be expensive and difficult to access, with wait times for wheelchairs sometimes taking months, according to Soudi. No such borrowing program existed in the city, Soudi added. 

"We noticed that there wasn't anything local, especially because Hamilton has the largest population, per capita, of people who have disabilities."

Library part of campaign to improve access to devices 

DJNO had previously launched a petition to reform Ontario's Assistive Devices Program, which covers some of the cost of equipment such as wheelchairs and walkers, but not repairs. 

In late 2019, Ottawa Centre MPP Joel Harden, the NDP critic for accessibility and people with disabilities, read out the petition at Queen's Park and moved a motion calling on the Ontario government to reform the program.

"People are waiting six months for everything from wheelchairs to hearing aids and repairs aren't covered. These devices are necessities, not luxuries," he wrote on Twitter at the time. 

Soudi said Michael Hampson, a disability activist in Hamilton, has been a major inspiration. Hampson had been part of the campaign to reform the assisted devices program, they said.

"Michael was a disabled man who used an assistive device that was a power wheelchair, and his assistive device was always needing repairs," Soudi said.

Hampson passed away in January 2020, an outcome that Soudi said could have been prevented with better funding and support to repair his device.

Other mutual aid networks launched amid pandemic

The library is another instance of a mutual aid initiative, or a voluntary network of organizers and volunteers who respond to the needs of a community. Similar initiatives cropped up across Canada during the pandemic, including a community fridge that opened in Hamilton in August. It is now one of several in the city. 

Maddie Brockbank, a PhD student in social work at McMaster University, was one of the first donors to the assistive devices library this month. After finding out about the initiative, she collected equipment that she had at her home and recruited the rest of her family to help.

"I played soccer growing up. So I have knee braces and ankle braces and a walking cast lying around," she said. "I was super thrilled to share anything that I have."

There are government programs that subsidize the cost of assistive devices. People receiving income support through the Ontario Disability Support Program, for example, are eligible for the Assistive Devices Program that pays for up to 75 per cent of the cost of a device. 

However, similar to the critique of the program in the DJNO petition, Brockbank said that in her experience working for social services, it can be hard to navigate these types of government programs.

"If you don't know the loopholes, it can actually be really hard to find any kind of subsidized assistance for specific needs related to ability."